all about Madonna

Madonna News Archives for June 2006

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Madonna’s agent has denied the pop diva will be the main act at an open-air concert to be held in November in South Africa.
The South African media, including News24, reported on Thursday that Madonna has agreed to perform on November 4 at the new 400 ha Pinnacle Point golf estate outside Mossel Bay.
Madonna’s international tour promoter Arthur Fogel of The Next Adventure on Friday released a statement describing the reports of her South African performance as “complete fantasy”.
“There is no such Madonna performance contemplated,” Fogel said.
He also threatened legal action against anyone making such claims in the future.
Pinnacle Point Holding group sales and marketing director David McGregor said on Thursday the concert will be held on the state-of-the-art driving range in a Kirstenbosch-style picnic environment.

Madonna begins her show by climbing out of a disco ball. It splits apart, like one of those chocolate oranges, and out she climbs: a star is hatched.
Wednesday night was the first time she did this at Madison Square Garden, although it’s not scheduled to be the last: the concert marked the beginning of a four-night engagement (not counting two nights later in July). And for the next two hours, she put on a spectacular and mainly successful show, returning again and again to a place she knows well: the dance floor. Just about everything onstage is covered in mirror tiles, even the cross on which Madonna is briefly crucified. (It’s a plea for AIDS relief, naturally.)
The show is largely given over to her 2005 album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor” (Warner Bros.), which is as exuberant as its predecessor, “American Life,” was severe. Most of it was produced with Stuart Price (sometimes known as Jacques Lu Cont), who specializes in sleek and buzzy beats. The album has been praised as Madonna’s nostalgic return to her nightclub roots, but Wednesday’s concert suggested that something has changed. She’s still in the club, but she has a slightly different idea about why.
One of the most dazzling sequences came near the beginning. Madonna rode a saddle that was mounted on a pole to sing “Like a Virgin.” The saddle slowly rose and fell, as if it were on a merry-go-round. And as Madonna contorted, it was easy to miss the disturbing story that was unfolding on screens behind her: there was a video montage of racehorses stumbling, throwing their riders, crashing to earth. This vague sense of terror kept coming back all night, as if to remind the dancers — including the ones in the bleachers — that there’s no such thing as innocent fun.
Like many recent Madonna tours, this one is a trade-off. Fans get fewer old warhorses than they want. (Near the end, she made more than a few nights by singing “Lucky Star.”) In return, they get more outlandish sets, weird conceits and eye-popping dance routines (referencing everything from the Los Angeles krumping scene to the French sport of parkour) than they can digest in one night.
The most indigestible moments are still the ones in which Madonna is burdened with something more inhibiting than a saddle: a guitar. Madonna with a guitar is generally the concert equivalent of cholesterol: it clogs the aisles with otherwise faithful fans who suddenly remember they have to buy a T-shirt, or use the rest room, or track down one of those beer mugs with the pretzel rod in the handle.
No matter: by the time she sung “Hung Up,” the ecstatic, Abba-sampling hit from “Confessions,” the draggy middle was all but forgotten. When pop stars sing about clubs, they’re often singing about leaving them: the whole reason you go is to find someone to leave with. But there’s not much that’s flirtatious or suggestive about “Hung Up.” It sounds, on the contrary, like the work of someone who’s realized that there is no after-party: the party is all there is, and what happens on the dance floor isn’t a means to a end — it’s the end. You don’t go there to leave, or to somehow transcend it; you go there to stay as long as you can. Maybe it takes a 47-year-old pop star to figure that out.

Advice for anyone heading to Madonna’s concerts: Dress in light fabrics that breathe.
Also consider bringing fans, ice packs and smelling salts.
Madonna has decided that the best way to preserve her less-than-powerhouse voice is to turn the air conditioning down to a barely perceivable wheeze.
The result transforms whatever venue she plays into a virtual furnace.
At least the heat makes sense on a thematic level. As tipped off by the title – “Confessions on a Dance Floor” – Madonna’s new show aims to re-create the sweatiest kind of nightclub.
“Confessions” finds Madonna in full spectacle mode. She crowds the two-hour event with theatrical set pieces, gymnastic feats and plenty of puzzling “messages.”
The result offers up Madonna’s usual mix of the fantastic and the frustrating, with the balance tipping a bit too close to the latter for comfort.
Let’s use dance-club jargon: There exists something called “peaks” – those moments when a deejay’s skill matches the dancers’ will, to create a flash of transcendence.
“Confessions” features precisely one of these, along with several near-peaks tucked between many deep and meandering valleys.
As usual, Madonna divides the show into four acts, starting with an equestrian section inspired by the star’s riding boo-boo last year. It comes complete with X-ray footage of her once shattered bones. Having revealed her fleshy parts in the past, apparently now it’s time to flash us from the inside.
But don’t get too excited. This show isn’t about “shock” – unfortunately. More often it’s about teaching us a few “lessons.”
By Act II we find Madonna affixed to a crucifix for “Live to Tell.” While it was cheeky to outfit a cross with disco mirrors, it’s a head-scratcher as to why the video behind her flashes shots of African children orphaned by AIDS.
Never content to simply entertain us, Madonna wants to present herself as Martin Luther King Jr., only with Farrah Fawcett’s hair.
Still, there’s a deeper problem with the show. Most of the material comes from the new “Confessions” CD, which is only half great. The album’s worst songs drag it down. Its best provide some of the night’s highs, including the undulating “Get Together” and the propulsive “Sorry.”
The highest “peak,” though, comes during a redo of an older number: a “mashup” of her hit “Music” with The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno.” It is inspired and cutting edge, too.
Gorging on ’70s nostalgia, the last segment has Madonna poured into that ABBA-esque unitard of hers. The 47-year-old mother of two looks drop dead in the thing. In fact, her body functions as the show’s ultimate special effect.
Madonna has launched three giant road shows in just this decade, which means she may be going to the idea well too often. No wonder her latest foray only rarely manages to be as hot as the venue.

If there is one quality that marks my long professional relationship with Madonna, it is her matter-of-factness. She never ever beats around the bush, acts coy, promises what she cannot deliver. When I got through to her here in Manhattan, on the eve of her six-night sold-out stand at Madison Square Garden, the star said, “Liz, I’m glad to do this for you, but what more do you need to know about me? You know more about me than I do myself.” I promised I wouldn’t ask her more than 20 questions. She laughed, “Oh, I’ve heard that before!”

The funny thing is, for all the column space I have devoted to this remarkable woman, I had to be prodded to pay attention to her, back in the day. She was already a big star by the time she appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1985, but I was keeping my distance. Others then clued me into MTV, to her videos, her persona, her daring. When I spoke to Rosanna Arquette, on the eve of “Desperately Seeking Susan” being released, she claimed Madonna – who had a supporting role in the film – said to her, “Wouldn’t you give anything to be me for just an hour?” Rosanna demurred, but I loved that remark. It reminded me so much of other great ego-driven stars – Streisand, Diana Ross, Mae West!

And so Madonna became a column constant. I didn’t always agree with what she said, or what she did, but the hysterical over-reaction to her caused me, if not to defend her, then at least try to put a more balanced perspective on her astonishing ongoing saga – which the rest of the media kept insisting was just about to end. She gave me access and trusted my judgment. She gave me the scoop on her first pregnancy – “Liz, I’m pregnant!” she barked without preamble, all the way from Budapest, as filming began on “Evita.” She was generous. When I met her face to face for the first time, at the premiere of “Truth or Dare,” I was being profiled for “Prime Time Live.” The producers wanted her to talk about me. I did not think this would happen. I was wrong. Madonna said, “I like Liz Smith because she has big balls, just like me!”

And, at the height of her “Sex” book/”Body of Evidence” notoriety, Madonna called from the out of the blue. “Hi, it’s Madonna,” getting right to the point. “I just want to say thanks for the all the support. I know you get a lot of crap because of it.” I did. I still do. And I couldn’t care less.

Liz: Are you happy to be back in New York, performing your shows at the Garden?
Madonna: I am always happy to be back here, because, as I’ve often said, this is where it began and I still consider New York home. I didn’t leave Michigan and go to Hollywood. I came to New York, which was the center of the world to me then. My connection to this city and its people will always be very strong. I’ve had plenty of fun in this city and the audiences are always fabulous.

Liz: You say it was the center of the world “then.” No longer? You prefer England?
Madonna: England is where my husband is from and I made the choice to live there with him. But the center of my world is my family. We travel back and forth and I feel privileged to be able to live in the U.S. and in Britain.

Liz: If your family is your center, why do you work so much?
Madonna: Because I love my work, too, and I have much to say and so much to do.

Liz: What’s the best part about being a mother?
Madonna: Not thinking about yourself all the time.

Liz: And the worst?
Madonna: Not thinking about yourself all the time!

Liz: And marriage?
Madonna: Diane Sawyer once said that marriage is a contest of generosity and I agree but sometimes I lose and sometimes I win. But I am still in the game and this game has taught me the art of compromise and the art of diplomacy. These two qualities have served me well.

Liz: Did kaballah help you adjust?
Madonna: Having a spiritual life has forced me to be less selfish. Not that I’m serene by any means. I’m still driven by big fat ego and all my insecurities, but I manage better.

Liz: You never seem insecure, in what ways are you?
Madonna: Ha-ha. Don’t get me started, I’m never good enough.

Liz: Why do you continue to provoke such controversy in your work?
Madonna: Because I want my audience to think. But I also want them to have fun. I think the two can co-exist in entertainment.

Liz: So the crucifix you are suspended on –
Madonna: Is what you make of it. If you want to be shocked, be shocked. As I’ve said, I don’t think Jesus would be mad at me, as my message during that song is not so different than his. I want to help make the world a better place. I want to open people’s eyes to the suffering that’s going on in especially the children still dying of AIDS in Africa. Besides, Jesus was not the only person who died on a cross.

Liz: Are you as manipulative with your image as you are often accused of being?
Madonna: All entertainment and art is some form of manipulation. There is nothing wrong with it. The question is what is the intention? To make people laugh? To seduce people into being sheep? Or to wake people up and make them think and ask questions. The latter is obviously my game.

Liz: I heard you are doing a sequel to you enchanting children’s story “The English Roses.”
Madonna: The sequel is coming out in the fall. It’s called “The English Roses-Too Good To Be True.” My daughter and I really had a great time following up on the adventures of these five close friends.

Liz: And you’re expanding into the retail world?
Madonna: Yes, another reason to go on calling me “The Material Girl!” Actually, my dancers and I just shot an ad campaign for H&M. I worked with their designers on a track suit that will be in the stores by August. It’s Gaultier onstage and H&M off.

Liz: You were already around 25 when you hit really big, a grown woman, with a lot of experience. Do you think that helped you – that you didn’t become a sensation at 18 or younger?
Madonna: I was hardly a grown woman at 25, but it was good to have that much time to be anonymous and learn how to survive privately. I certainly knew what I wanted by the time I was able to get it. But, I wasn’t prepared, could never have been prepared for the scope of what happened to me. You might fantasize about being famous – and I did! – but never that famous. Luckily I really have managed to carve out a life for myself that is mine and mine alone.

Liz: There’s a major equestrian theme in this show, yes?
Madonna: Yes, I love horses. They are the most beautiful creatures I think I may have been one of Henry the VIII’s knights in another life, riding through the great forest.

Liz: What did the success of this album mean to you?
Madonna: Well, first of all – and nobody believes this when I or any artist says it – I don’t write songs or record because I’m thinking “big hit!” I have to be satisfied with what I do. Not that I ever am. I mean, I’m always thinking something can be done better. But, I absolutely appreciate commercial success and it means so much if my fans, who have been devoted through thick and thin, like what I do. When this album debuted at No. 1, when it was No. 1 around the world at the same time, I opened up a bottle of champagne and I cried.

Liz: Is it true you’ve given up on movies?
Madonna: Actually, I’m more interested in directing at this point. I have so many tales to tell. Making movies for me was never about being a big movie star, it was about being a good actress. But it’s not easy with critics going after you before the movie is even released. It’s easier to be a visionary as a director.

Liz: Do you have any beauty secrets?
Madonna: Somebody told you to ask me that, right? I love it. I have no secrets. I get incredible facials. I take good care of myself. I eat healthy food. And when and if I ever decide to have plastic surgery – because I know that’s the next question – I’ll do it. But I won’t be holding a press conference.

Liz: Hmmm … I think I’ll skip the retirement question then.
Madonna: Oh, no, please. When I was 30, it was all … “she’s 30, when is she going to quit” … then 35, 40 …all this speculation that once you reach a certain point you have to stop doing what you love doing. And don’t you dare look good doing it, either. It’s the furthest thing from my mind. I tell you what, Liz. We’ve known each other for a really long time. I’ve always admired your energy. I’ll quit when you do.

Liz: Madonna, you and I will be the last girls standing at the rodeo.
Madonna: Yeah, we can ride off into the sunset together.